In the spirit of putting up more practical posts, I thought I'd start with something that I have seen a lot of this summer—TOMATOES! Not just tomatoes but how to keep those red-balls of sweet goodness off the ground and on the vine until completely ripe. I am talking about trellising.

What a thrilling topic? No, really, it is though.I couldn't imagine all the tomatoes in our research plots with individual cages. We have over 900 plants this season, and one of the most important things to consider is to keep them off of the ground.

Enter, the Florida Weave.

The Florida Weave is a system that reduces the use of hard staking material by using twine to support plants between more broadly spaced stakes. In the "official" method you place stakes between every 2nd plant, though at the station we have stakes between every 7 plants unless they get too heavy then we supplement with one between the 3rd and 4th plant.

The twine is tied off to a strong end post then weaved between stems and wrapped around each of the central posts. Once your twine reaches the end post, you go back and weave around the opposite sides of the stems - effectively squeezing each stem and post between twine. As the tomato plant grows, you add another level of twine every 6-10 inches.

With this system, it is advantageous to stay on top of pruning lateral branches or you end up with a Florida "lean". But, if you find yourself in that position, just sink another strong post (a t-bar works great) and tie your weave to the new post.

I recommend using jute twine as it can be cut up and composted with all of the vines at the end of the season. Jute or sisal is non-toxic, 100% natural fibers, and 100% compostable.

Yesterday marked move #4 since last November. I will be back on campus until the Christmas Break, and move #5 (the last for a while *fingers crossed*). The month leading up to this weekend has been extremely busy for me. But, now I have left my fruit quality research in the hands of our very capable crew in Western Washington for the remainder of the growing season.

While on campus, I will be transitioning to another kind of lab work - materials. A lot of my peers find it quite comical to learn that I am working with the Apparel, Merchandising, Design & Textiles department. But, looking at the degradation of fibers and films brought me to them and that will be my primary research focus for the next four months.

That being said, DW and I have been discussing my future as a blogger and decided that the nature of my posts are not as engaging as they could be. So, I will be working on more practical posts relating to simple living. Things like how to prune a tree, or repurposing otherwise useless household items. So look for posts of that nature in the weeks to come. Or, even better, send me some suggestions.

I have also been contemplating what it actually means to "achieve simplicity." After all, the simple life I am leaning towards involves far more work than traditional living (in the post-modern Western culture sense). And, it has been a bit of a struggle. But, I think I am wrapping my head around it the more I consider it. Simple living isn't so much about making life easy; simple living is about finding happiness, not from an adventure, gadget, or some periodic pleasure, but from the simple joys of daily living. It is finding happiness in a turn in the weather, a bountiful harvest, or even the lessons learned from failure. It is about finding happiness in the tiny moments, seeing your children learn and grow. And if removing the distractions of "modern living" helps you find that happiness, I think you're on the road to achieving simplicity.



Thanks for listening.

This week we participated in two potluck meals. The first was Friday afternoon at the research station and was themed "Family Recipes". The second was last night and was a pioneer theme.

Potlucks are an amazing thing. A group of people get together and provide a smorgasbord of food. It is always a mystery; no one is ever quite sure of what the palette will consist of. And every potluck requires at least some element of faith and charity. Faith that the food will be safe, edible, and (hopefully) tasty. And charity to eat at least a little of most of the offerings and smile and offer compliments even if they aren't entirely deserving. For those reasons, potlucks are both an adventure and treat.

At the event yesterday, the host family pulled out all the stops—even putting on a goat milking demonstration.

Not only do potlucks provide an opportunity to sample the fare favored by your friends or colleagues, they are a great opportunity to build community identity. Something I am learning is just as important as just about anything else, except family and faith of course.

This recipe has become a family favorite. We served it at our wedding and since have had many requests. Sorry, no pictures, I'll add one next time I make it.

Jeremy's Spinach & Artichoke Dip
Serves about 16 (as an appetizer)

1/4 stick butter
1/2 onion finely chopped
3/4 pkg. (About 1 cup) frozen spinach thawed
8 oz. Philly cream cheese
8 oz. sour cream
3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cups shredded Parmesan cheese
2-3 oz. shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 can (UNMARINATED!!!) artichokes, chopped

Sauté onions in butter, then add ingredients, blending well after each addition. Add ingredients in this order: Spinach, Cream Cheese, Sour Cream, Heavy Cream, Parmesan Cheese, Artichoke Hearts.

Remove from heat and put in an oven-safe dish. Top with Monterey Jack Cheese and bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees until Monterey Jack cheese is golden brown (instead of baking in the oven, you can use a torch to brown the cheese) or simply melt the cheese into the mix and remove from heat. Salt and pepper to taste.

Don't worry if it seems a bit runny at first. It will thicken up a lot as it cools to a servable temperature.

Serve hot with chips or bread.

After moving to Washington, I was unable to spend time with the boys for over 6 months. Thank goodness for Skype. But now, they are here until school goes back in session and we are getting to spend a LOT of time together . . . and I love it!

This evening I took the boys to a presentation put on by our local library: Reptile Man! Now, if you are of the gender replete with testosterone, this sounds really cool. If you are of the fairer gender, and have boys, you understand as well. Snakes, lizards, and the like are creepy, slithery, mysterious, and REALLY cool!

Reptile Man put on an hour presentation in which he brought out a Solcata Tortoise, a Blue-tongued Skink, a Monkey-tail Skink, a Gila Monster*, an American Alligator, a Gaboon Viper*, a Red Diamond Rattlesnake*, a Spectacled Cobra*, a Ball Python, and a HUGE albino Burmese Python.

The alligator gave everyone a laugh when it was demonstrated how to put an alligator to sleep. Apparently, rubbing an alligator's eyes causes a rapid loss of blood pressure putting the animal immediately to sleep. Though, Reptile Man did caution not to attempt it on a wild alligator as you're not likely to get close enough to try.

Reptile Man explained that the venomous species (those indicated with the *) he had on display had their venom glands removed. But, they were still very cool to see.
But, all the fun little details are entirely beside the point. This event was sponsored by the local library and offered to the community free of charge. I was recently turned on to a great website for folks with kids, Macaroni Kid. You can enter your location and it has lists of community events geared towards kids. The great part is, the VAST majority are totally free.

Building a strong foundation of community awareness in our children will go miles in helping them grow into responsible adults. Participating in fun and service-oriented events with others will teach them interpersonal skills, the value of service, and fulfill their innate need for fellowship and camaraderie. Not only that, participating with them, gives parents the opportunity to connect both with their children and with other children and parents in the community.

If you haven't already read about our Freecycle adventures, you should check out Do You "Freecycle"? and The Latest Freecycle Treasure: Chest Freezer.

Freecycle is a marvelous enterprise - effectively bringing communities together to extend the life of otherwise landfill-bound "treasures". While I haven't been freecycling very actively in the last couple months, I have been able to find "gently-used" mattresses for the boys' bunk bed (we sold the old one's in California to save on space for the move) and one bicycle, so far.

So, despite my relative inactivity, I was prompted to reprise my support for Freecycle because here, in Northwest Washington state, our local Freecycle group is VERY active. If I had to guess, I'd estimate that forty to fifty listings clutter my inbox each day. And it isn't always "junk". DW and I almost came to blows when she refused to support me responding to a 52" television. I mean, "Come on!"

Anyways, if you haven't already, check out Freecycle and hook up with your local group. Worst-case scenario: you get a little extra email.

This morning we were running low on syrup for our pancakes, and while making a fresh batch, I thought it would make a great blog post. But, dag-nab-it, I need to be a bit more on top of taking pictures of the process. Oh well, here's the recipe:

Homemade Maple/Vanilla Syrup
Makes about 16 fl.oz.

1 cup Water
2 cups Sugar
1/3 cup Brown Sugar
3 Tbsp Corn Syrup
2 tsps Vanilla and/or Maple extract in whatever proportion you desire

Start heating the water in a small saucepan on high. Stir in the sugar, brown sugar and corn syrup and bring to a rolling boil. Turn the burner to medium low and start a timer for 6 minutes. Stir until the timer goes off then remove the syrup from the heat. Stir in 2 teaspoons of maple and/or vanilla extract (we use 1 tsp of each). Set aside to cool.

At this point, if you choose, you could preserve the syrup or cool it by placing the jar in a tall bowl or bucket of hot water, and running cool water into the water (not directly on the jar). This should cool the syrup enough to serve it within 10-15 minutes.

The syrup stores for several weeks at room temperature—ours doesn't usually last that long.

Three weeks ago, [Baby Girl] (who has assumed the internet alter ego Charlie) had her first birthday. And, in cheap thrifty Cowan fashion, the festivities were limited to a backyard, family gathering.

Charlie was less than excited and had no clue what all the fuss was about. In fact she spent the majority of present-opening time looking something like:

When the discussion of cake started a few weeks before, I indicated that I thought Charlie should have her own, small cake (to destroy), and the rest of us another. DW decided that she wanted to make cupcakes and capitalize on the cake decorating class she took earlier in the Spring by making them into farm animals. I think they turned out nicely.



Once the cupcakes came out, and after she had sufficiently inspected and determined they were safe, she broke from the sour face and dove in (though not quite with the destructive force I'd envisioned).

After cleaning the cupcake of all its frosting, the sugar rush set in and Charlie broke out in her first smile of the day.

By the end of the day, the sugar rush came and went, the crash, fortunately, came at bed time, but we eeked out a couple "cousins" pictures (though they were all squinty eyed, staring into the sun) before we tucked her in to end her first year of life.